CHAPTER L.
Now wc shall discourse on the chapter which deals with the (symptoms and) medical treatment of hiccough (Hiccá-Pratishedha). 1.
Causes: — Hiccough, cough and asthma are the result of using those articles of fare which are heavy, dry, or secreting (Abhishyandi) or which are followed by an acid reaction or which remain long in an undigested state (in the stomach) as well as of cold drinks, residence in cold places, exposure to cold or dust or smoke or fire or wind, over-fatiguing physical exercises, physical exertion, load-carrying, toils of journey, voluntary repres- sion of (physical urgings), fasting (Apatarpana), accumulation of Ama-dosha (mucus in the intestines), blow or hurt, emaciation (weakness) due to sexual excesse, concomitant distress or agony of any existing or continuing physical ailment, irregular diet, eating before the digestion of a previous meal or of a wrong application of Samśamana remedies. 2.
Derivation:— The Váyu (wind) constantly belches out of the mouth with a report shaking, as it were, the spleen, the liver and the intestines. The physicians have bestowed the name Hiccá on the disease owing to fact .of its speedily extinguishing the vital spark in man (from Sanskrit root — Hins to kill). 3.
Classification:— Hiccá is divided into five kinds which are styled Annajá, Yamalá, Kshudrá Gambhirá and Mahati, all of which are the effects of the derangement of the bodily Váyu acting in unison with the deranged Kapha. 4.
Premonitory Symptoms:— An astrigent
